Southeast opener – The first eight games on Washington ’s schedule have been outside the division, meaning that the Capitals’ Thursday night tilt in Atlanta is its Southeast Division opener. While the Capitals finished last season with a 16-8-0 divisional record, that’s somewhat deceiving – take away a 6-0-0 record against Tampa Bay and Washington was just two games over .500 against Atlanta , Carolina and Florida combined. Thursday they’ll meet a much improved Thrasher squad that has posted a better winning percentage than Washington thus far (4-1-0 through five games) and boasts a goal scorer with more goals per game than Alex Ovechkin (Ilya Kovalchuk has seven goals in five games).

“If you grow up in metro Washington, you grow up a diehard Redskins fan. But if you hate your parents, you grow up a Cowboys fan.”-Jim Lachey